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The Perk- Tuesday morning

It wasn't that Jaina had cut her training short today, but she had started earlier thanks to waking up early and not getting back to sleep, which meant just starting early. It also meant that afterwards, once she'd changed and made herself unsweaty and gross, she could hang out at the Perk for a while and check out the news from home, just in case anything had exploded over there.

Because if it hadn't, she was going to maybe check out what the damage would be to postpone her portal till tomorrow. If the time she had left to do that sort of thing was running short, an extra day wouldn't hurt too badly, right?

[Girl has a billion things to do this visit, it's true. Open! I cannot guarantee how punchy I will or will not be omg booooooooooooooooook.]

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Gabrielle loved her coffee, but it wasn't terribly conducive to a serene state of mind (for her, anyway), so she'd been making an effort to switch to something much less caffeinated and more herbal lately.

It didn't mean she wouldn't eye the blueberry rooibos latte she'd ordered and sigh wistfully, though.

She'd just finished up with the sugar at the condiments counter when she noticed Jaina, and drifted over. "It's good to see you back in town," she offered by way of greeting.

"You too," Jaina said, giving her a little smile. "I figure every once in a while it's a good idea to come back, see the Fandom crazy, and appreciate the crazy at home a little more."

Sure, Jaina.

"See? You mean it didn't get you too?" Gabrielle raised an eyebrow. "That must have been nice. I don't know if it makes me appreciate the crazy back home so much as it does make me realize that yup, things are about normal wherever I go."

Sadly skewed concept of reality, this one.

"But I guess that's comforting."

"Normal works," she decided. But if she had to deal with turning into weird things all the time back home, that would not be okay. "I was lucky enough to get skipped this time. You weren't?"

"I spent the weekend ~~handwavily because I suck~~ chewing on a cigar and exploring caves in the Rocky Bits," Gabrielle replied, making a face, because the cigar-chomping had been truly gross. "Looking for ancient hidden treasure or something, I think -- and no, I didn't find any."

Too bad. She could use the dinars.

"As weirdness goes, that doesn't sound too bad." Jaina herself might have been all over that, save for the cigar thing.

"It was fun?" Gabrielle replied, making a face. "The hat and the bullwhip were a nice touch."

Why did Jaina suddenly have the Illinois Smith theme in her head?

"A bullwhip?"

That was the power of pastiche for you.

"The weird part was," Gabrielle went on, "I even knew how to use it." The last time she'd tried to play with Xena's whip, Argo had ended up hating her for a month.

"But it's been a good visit? Even with the people changing -- well, I guess that would be memorable."

Overall. "Yeah," she said. "I don't think I've seen this many people in such a short amount of time in... A long time. It's nice to have some catchup time."

And maybe get a couple let's do this now while I still have the chance things done.

"It's the sort of thing you learn to value when you only have so many chances to see people you care about," Gabrielle said thoughtfully. "I wish we could make phone calls back home, or travel faster than horseback; there's so many people I'd like to visit every time I'm home, and there just isn't the time, and sometimes you just never know . . ."

That was more depressing than she really cared to be, so she trailed off there.

Jaina frowned. "There's no faster way to get in touch with people back there?"

She was so spoiled that way.

"No cars five thousand years ago," Gabrielle pointed out. Or six thousand, or four thousand, or something. Whatever. Who knew? "A really long time ago" was the relevant bit.

Be horrified, Jaina, you know you want to. Seriously, whose universe was that primitive five thousand years ago?

She wanted to twitch, but managed to keep that hidden. "Only five thousand years? Zayne's from about four thousand back in my galaxy and it's not that different."

"Oh, I wish. It'd be nice to actually get to use my cell phone at home." Except Gabrielle was looking at her curiously. "It's really that similar? But how? Your galaxy must be ancient." You know, that whole long time ago thing.

It was also far, far away!

"Ancient's a good word for it. I mean, technology's advanced and all, but apparently Zayne and my dad flew the same types of bikes a few thousand years apart."

Which totally made sense.

It made sense the same way running into Hippocrates and Julius Caesar in the same lifetime made sense.

"Flew," Gabrielle repeated. "I still can't get over that. You have vehicles that fly. That's just amazing to me."

Flying carpets didn't count. The only time she'd ever tried one of those had involved getting kidnapped by a demon.

"I get the impression it's not really that common in other galaxies," she admitted with a frown.

Believe it or not, it took her this long to figure out just how uncommon it was.

Well, better late than never, Jaina.

"I'm still getting used to the idea of entire other worlds out there in the stars," Gabrielle replied, "so we're a little bit even." Because that was weird, but other universes wasn't, apparently.

"You guys need a field trip out there somewhere," Jaina said. This sort of thing was a theme in her conversations lately, apparently. "Or maybe Fandom will help out by heading to another planet for once or something."

"I would love to go on a trip like that. I mean. Other planets." Gabrielle said that like she was trying to wrap her brain around the idea, mostly because she still was. "Doesn't that just make you feel like such a tiny piece of the universe when you realize just how big it is?"

Someone stop her before the philosophical rambling started.

Jaina shrugged. "A little. And when you're dealing with several different universes all at once..."

Philosophical rambling incoming?

Look, rambling at stoic warrior types was what Gabrielle did. Possibly more so because it was easier for her to do all the talking that way.

"And you start to understand that the entirety of existence is so much more vast than you realize it is -- or even, maybe, than we're capable of comprehending," she jumped in, gesturing with the hand that wasn't holding the tea. "Places we haven't been and beings we haven't met and possibilities we never even would have thought of considering. It's really humbling. But . . . nice, too. Because a multiverse that big has to have room for everyone, even when we feel like we don't fit in."

Really, Gabrielle? Really?

Huh.

"You've really thought about this." Way more than Jaina ever had.

"There's not much else to do on a two-day horseback ride from one town to the next sometimes," Gabrielle said with a conspiratorial grin.

"That's why I have Angry Birds," Jaina said helpfully.

"I don't know if I could even kill fake pigs," Gabrielle said immediately, wincing. Plus without electricity in ancient Greece she'd run her phone out of battery so fast.

"If it helps, they're really obnoxious." You try dreaming about those stupid green things and see if you didn't form some sort of vendetta.

"So are a lot of people I know," Gabrielle argued. It's okay, Jaina. You wouldn't be the only one who had to deal with this from her. "And I don't shoot birds out of a slingshot at them."

Tempting as it was sometimes.

"Thwapping them in person is a lot more satisfying," she admitted.

What.

Well, just because she wouldn't even do that any more . . .

"You have a point." And then Gabrielle had to know. "Do you ever catch yourself trying to thwap the pigs through the phone?"

Jaina paused. "I haven't yet, but something tells me I'm going to be really tempted now."

Because Gabrielle was a terrible person.

"If you break your phone," she said quickly, "it wasn't my fault."

Yes it was.

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The Perk- Tuesday morning

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